Lawn and yard - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

nightfighter · 04-08-2017, 04:49 PM

Going to spread Scotts Halts with crabgrass preventer when the wind lays down. Want to get it in before the coming heat. (may be too late) Also some of their Moss Control. I would like to get what is left of the lawn going and then top dress heavily with loam.
I rented an aerator in the fall, with my brother and two neighbors to make the cost really low. So I am hoping that helps this coming spring. It all looks like hell right now. But I don't have a sprinkler system and am not going to be a slave to a lawn, just want it to look nice enough. It burns out by mid July most years...
What have you got going or planned?

PRBuzz · 04-08-2017, 05:02 PM

Don't worry about Halts until mid-May, ground has to be 65d for crab grass to sprout. Only lasts 90 days, and do not break the chemical barrier by raking or any other activity.

It has been cold and a day or 2 of +70 air temp will not cause CG to sprout

Guppy · 04-08-2017, 06:06 PM

I hate my lawn

Raven · 04-08-2017, 07:34 PM

never have to cut it

Rockfish9 · 04-10-2017, 07:08 AM

Front yard is a war zone... I lost 6 trees during the "did nothing storm".. it was too much work for me so we hired ( against my will) a tree company to take care of them...the stumps have been ground and now the work begins...I've decided not to replant anything except for the boarder trees.. .. those will be some kind of privacy hedge...Thursday dig safe marked the gas line.. so I started digging for the sprinkler in the front this past weekend... I laid the pipe yesterday.on the primary run..I've got to water jet a tunnel under the walkway tonight after work....last year I put 4 zones in the back yard and re landscaped it leaving 2 zones in case I ever wanted to "sprinkle" the front... the storm made the decision clearer..

Now that the back yard had one growing season ... I have to use the moss control ... haltz and crab grass preventer to strengthen the roots...and get rid of the weeds.. the crab grass was real bad but with the grass being new.. there wasn't a lot I could do..

We need the weather to co-operate.. it's a lot of work for one man and one woman....I need to get it done before our striped friends show up...

piemma · 04-17-2017, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

it's a lot of work for one man and one woman....I need to get it done before our striped friends show up...

I hear ya! I've been spreading 6 yds of mulch 1 wheel barrel at a time. Trying to finish so I can get back on the boat and finish it.

Rockfish9 · 04-17-2017, 08:30 AM

Got the front and back lawn dethatched... and applied lime,sctotts with haltz as well as crab grass preventer.. I need to apply the moss control tonight... rotto tilled and used an axe to get the rest of the root systems out Saturday until I couldn't take it anymore... tested and buried the sprinkler system.. pretty beat out at the end of close to 14 hours.... raked and rolled it out yesterday morning before the company showed up.. scratched it and applied seed... rolled it again... now I'll let the sprinklers do their thing... I'm in good shape now..

Rockfish9 · 04-17-2017, 08:37 AM

this was the first of the 6 trees that came down.. this one took the power lines off the house... the other blue sprce was a little shorter than this one but compromised the roots of 4 others that actually saved it from taking out the neighbors garage... I didn't take pictures of that mess... I was too disgusted .. I'll take a picture of what it looks like now tonight when I get home...

Sea Dangles · 04-17-2017, 03:09 PM

Bummer
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

OLD GOAT · 04-17-2017, 03:15 PM

The fish fairy showed up with two giant fluke and a tile fish the day before Easter.
Cutting in the back yard I found my gurry barrel had a cover crack and was full of water so I dipped it out and tossed it on the front yard tulip bed.
Well let me tell ya the Easter egg police took one wiff and I had an all woman chit storm.Lucky she let me back in the house.

nightfighter · 07-30-2017, 09:09 AM

Well, here's what worked for me. I did apply the halts early. Two or three weeks ago I applied Scotts starter fertilizer with crabgrass preventer and overseeded with Penningtons contractors mix grass seed. The Scotts starter product allowed me to seed, where as stuff I have used in the past to kill the weed did not. Grass is growing better than I expected and is choking out the weeds. The crabgrass turned white and did not spread. Looked like I had frosted the yard in places. Best combination I have used

Rockfish9 · 07-31-2017, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Well, here's what worked for me. I did apply the halts early. Two or three weeks ago I applied Scotts starter fertilizer with crabgrass preventer and overseeded with Penningtons contractors mix grass seed. The Scotts starter product allowed me to seed, where as stuff I have used in the past to kill the weed did not. Grass is growing better than I expected and is choking out the weeds. The crabgrass turned white and did not spread. Looked like I had frosted the yard in places. Best combination I have used

Pretty much what I did Ross...I like/have had better luck with pennington seed ... scotts just never seems to do well and it seems to have a lot more clover in it...

here is a picture of what it looks like now ( a few weeks ago)... never realized how much those trees shaded the yard...

We took down that overgrown apple in the back Saturday and sunday.. somehow it was a little more work than I remember

nightfighter · 08-08-2017, 08:43 AM

Here's what I needed to make it work. Speedy green spreader to fertilize and the hand held spreader worked great with the seed. Scotts Turfbuilder Starter food for new grass is the key change I made. 40# bag of Penningtons Contractors mix is best bang for the buck. Just keep overseeding.

The Dad Fisherman · 08-08-2017, 09:13 AM

Some great info here. gonna be tackling this next season.

spence · 08-08-2017, 09:50 AM

I went a slightly different approach and just bought a new house with a great yard...much easier to not screw it up than have to repair what was never right to begin with.

nightfighter · 08-08-2017, 10:04 AM

Seed and turf builder set me back 100 bucks. How about you?

Seriously, congrats.

spence · 08-08-2017, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Seed and turf builder set me back 100 bucks. How about you?

Seriously, congrats.

Slightly more...and thanks

Sea Dangles · 08-08-2017, 11:47 AM

Contractors mix is inferior seed but the results can be great.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Rockport24 · 08-08-2017, 12:25 PM

thanks for this update, I too used the halts. Last year was my first year in my house and the halts kept the crab grass away, but then in mid-July my lawn turned brown because of the drought and then my town went into a 24 hour water ban, so I was screwed. Lawn is still not recovered, but I used the halts again this year and it worked very well, only small bits of crab grass in the areas that I didn't get too well. The Scott's seed I put on in May only worked in the areas where I used a TON of it, the other areas are now all crab grass.

I think I will take this advice and do the starter and overseed. When you do the seeding, do you aerate the lawn at all, or just spread it using the hand spreader (I have the same one as Ross posted)?

nightfighter · 08-08-2017, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

Contractors mix is inferior seed but the results can be great.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Yes, as it has some seed that is an annual grass as opposed to perennial. But it will establish a lawn quickly that can then be further overseeded with the expensive stuff.

Matt, I aerated last fall. This year I just did the starter and spread the seed....